http://www.dallasheritagevillage.org A plethora of Victorian-style houses, pioneer homes and other old tyme-y buildings were brought in from neighboring cities and reassembled here to create a sort of interactive museum-slash-city park that’s a popular field-trip destination for the grade-school set. You can putter around in the old general store, watch a blacksmith hammering away, explore a 19th-century hotel and even pet the friendly donkeys at a small farm, all in the name of showing kids what life was like before Angry Birds came along. Plenty of shady trees make it an ideal picnicking spot. More >>

http://www.cityofallen.org Wouldn’t your middle school years have been way more rad if you’d had a skate park to hang out at? The lucky kids of northern 'burb Allen have just that with The Edge, which boasts not only a concrete skate park complete with plenty of handrails, bowls, boxes and ledges just begging to be ollied, but also two roller-hockey rinks and a BMX track. Bonus: Admission to the outdoor area is free, so strap on your elbow pads and get to living out your wildest Tony Hawk fantasies. More >>